Inception Takes Gulf 12H Pole in Ferrari 1-2

Inception Racing took pole position for the Gulf 12 Hours, narrowly beating Al Manar by Dragon to lead a Ferrari 1-2 in qualifying at Yas Marina Circuit.

Brendan Iribe, Frederik Schandorff and Ollie Millroy set an average time of 1:52.641 aboard the No. 70 Ferrari 296 GT3, which was a mere 0.079 seconds than the No. 77 Al Manar by Dragon machine of Ben Tuck, Al Faisal Al Zubair and Chris Froggatt.

Although the No. 70 Ferrari led none of the individual sessions, a late 1:52.371 from Millroy was enough to put Inception ahead of the Al Manar crew on average, resulting in pole.

The No. 81 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Rinat Salikhov, Marvin Dienst and Gabriele Piana was third, joined on the second row by the sister car driven by Sergey Stolyarov, Daan Arrow and Maro Engel.

The overall top five was completed by the No. 13 CapitalRT by Motopark Mercedes-AMG, ahead of the No. 69 Optimum Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3 Evo driven by Todd Coleman, Aaron Telitz and Ben Barnicoat.

Pro-Am pole position was captured by the No. 44 Tigani Motorsport Mercedes-AMG of Sergio Pires, Marcel Zalloua, Jayden Ojeda and Brendon Leitch in seventh overall.

The No. 2 Into Africa Racing by HAAS RT Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II slotted into eighth, ahead of the No. 4 Grove Racing by GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG that set the fastest individual time of 1:51.664 in the hands of Jules Gounon.

The overall top ten was completed by the No. 7 Herberth Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R, while Garage 59 secured pole position in GT3-Am with its No. 8 McLaren in 13th overall.

The opening, eight-hour segment for the Gulf 12 Hours kicks off Sunday at 9 a.m. (midnight ET).

RESULTS: Qualifying (Combined)